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Twinsie Tuesday: Joshua & Walken/Bowie/Fichtner

Last night Dan and I went to The Barking Spider to hear writers/speakers Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, the two guys behind the popular site The Minimalists.

Joshua, the one speaking above, is often told he looks like Christopher Walken. I agree, but I also think there's a dash of Davie Bowie and even a sprinkle of William Fichtner. Am I right?

Joshua & Ryan are on a 100 city tour promoting their new book, Everything That Remains. Their main goal is to encourage people to live a more meaningful life with less stuff! If ever on an elevator with them, they'll likely hug you (they're big on free hugs!), and this is what they'll tell you about Minimalism:

Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.

There are many flavors of minimalism: a 20-year-old single guy’s minimalist lifestyle looks different from a 45-year-old mother’s minimalist life. Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a life with more time, more money, and more freedom to live a more meaningful life.

Getting started is as simple as asking yourself one question: How might your life be better if you owned fewer material possessions?

Dan has been embracing this minimalist idea for the past few years and he's really really good at getting rid of stuff he doesn't need. His closet, his drawers, his car, his bedside table -- ALL clutter free! He even willingly (and somewhat excitedly) cleans out the kid's toy bins every few months! I on the other hand could still use some work! I never have enough hangers in my closet because they're all being used by clothes I haven't worn in three years! I don't even know what's in my fully stocked, exploding dresser drawers because I only ever take out the stuff that's neatly folded on top. I have an entire kitchen cabinet dedicated to 40+ reusable plastic containers and lids, when all I really need is half a shelf for the five containers we actually use. And my bathroom cabinet is FULL of hair products, lotions, hairbands, makeup, brushes, and travel-sized toiletries that haven't traveled outside of that cabinet for over 10 years!

I could go on... but I won't. This week my goal is to tackle some of this clutter and see how my life might be better if I owned fewer material possessions.

I recently finished reading reading a book by Cristin Frank called Living Simple, Free & Happy. Like The Minimalists, she encourages decluttering your home to reduce stress, debt and waste. Later this week I'll share some insights from her book along with the results of my decluttering rampage! Stay tuned!

6 comments:

I have to agree with you on the look alikes. You have a knack for that! {I'm often told I look like Tina Fey!}.

I love the idea of minimalism but find it sooo hard to execute. As a thrifter and avid DIYer, I always feel like I could reuse something. I always worry that as soon as I declutter and purge that I'll find the perfect DIY I could have done. I have work to do for sure!

Amy - I just stalked your blog to find a pic of you without sunglasses. Yep, I TOTALLY see the Tina Fey comparison!!

Totally agree with you on the difficulty of embracing minimalism as a thrifter and DIYer. I've slowly started to be more careful with the items I thrift as to not have a garage (and basement!) full of stuff that never ends up being used. Buuuuut, there have been times that things have sat in the basement for more than a year and I end up using them! I have work to do too!!

My dad was a minimalist. He had a saying: "If you haven't used it in the last two weeks, and you're not going to use it in the next two weeks, you don't need it. Get rid of it!" As a child, I didn't understand how winter coats fit into that plan, but I went with it.

I'm wondering, how do you reconcile minimalism with decorating your home? Placing a collection of milk glass on an entry table can look beautiful, but is it useful? And I like to change out my decorations at least with the seasons ... that requires storage and multiple decorations. How does the minimalist approach address that? If I had to keep the same decorations in my house all the time (to meet minimalist standards) I would be bored.

Camille - I have the same questions!! As a DIYer, avid thrifter and flea market vendor, I am constantly collecting things to resell and to decorate our home. I think where I've slowly started to adopt minimalism into these passions is by being more stsrict about what I buy. For reselling at flea markets I used to buy anything and everything that I thought other people would deem hip/cool, even if I didn't personally like it. Now, I ONLY buy things that I would put in my own home (that way if it doesn't sell I can actually use it!)

Ok let's try this again for the 4th time (what's wrong with me?) This is really great. I go through phases with this but two things I've been consistent with. I have a limited number of velvet hangers in my dressing room and if I have more clothes than hangers, something's gotta go. Also, just like you, I love collections but I told myself I can't have more than 3 of anything: 3 vintage cameras, 3 vintage magazines and so on. Maybe this is something we can include in our classes because more and more I'm starting to feel like just because it's cheap, doesn't mean you need to have it!